£6 million investment in
University start-up company
Telecommunication engineers at the University have sealed a deal to
commercialise their groundbreaking research in the rapidly growing global market for
network optical routing.
The researchers have joined up with a team of business managers to form
the start-up company, ilotron. A £6million investment from leading European venture
capitalists 3i makes ilotron the largest and most significant spin-out company to be
established at the University. The collaborators hope the deal will tap into an estimated
global market for core network routers worth £4billion in 2002, rising to £15billion in
2005.
The research team, led by Professor Mike O’Mahony, is based in the
University’s Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (ESE), which has a
long-standing reputation as a centre of excellence in photonics and optical communication
networks
(left to right) Ken
Guild, Dr John Ellison, Anna Tzanakaki, Dr Dimitra Simeonidou and Professor Mike O'Mahony
Professor O’Mahony explained that the company aims to launch the
world’s first truly all-optical core network router for telecommunications networks.
This is a field set for rapid expansion as telecoms operators gear up for heavy investment
in optical circuits to meet the demand from internet traffic.
The University team includes Professor Mike O’Mahony and Dr Dimitra
Simeonidou, from the ESE Department, who will provide consultancy to help the company
establish itself. Three research staff Ms Anna Tzanakaki, Mr Ken Guild, and Dr John
Ellison will join the company as full time employees.
Bill Huston, Director of the University’s Business and Regional
Office, whose role includes encouraging academic staff to explore the commercial
applications of their teaching and research, said: ‘This is a significant milestone
for the University as £6million is the largest amount of venture capital that has been
invested in any of our spin-out companies to date. It is particularly pleasing that this
investment is in this important new area of technology.’
Essex - Mexico News
Close links between Essex
University and Mexico date back almost to the very beginnings of the University. The
relationship has strengthened over the years, and many Departments have maintained
academic contacts in the country.
Here is news of some of the most recent
developments and events:
A Centre for Mexican Studies has
been established to consolidate and build upon the existing inter-disciplinary study of
Mexico at Essex. It also aims to encourage the reciprocal exchange of scholars between
Essex and academic institutions and research centres in Mexico.
Professor Joe Foweraker, author of numerous books
and articles on Mexican politics, has been appointed Director of the Centre.
At the end of last year, Professor Foweraker led
a mission to Mexico on behalf of the Department for International Development (DFID) to
develop a strategy for combating extreme poverty in this and other ‘middle
income’ countries. Professor Foweraker was based in the DFID office in Mexico City
and spent fifteen days carrying our research and interviews before preparing his report
for the Government. His advice is currently under consideration.
Distinguished Mexican artist Raúl Piña
is to create a new site-specific piece of art on a wall in the entrance hall of the Albert
Sloman Library. Piña’s new mixed-media installation will be opened by the Mexican
ambassador, HE Santiago Oñate, on Monday 27 March.
Raúl Piña
"El Conejo está o es muerto?"
The rabbit is or is dead?
Opening 27 March 2000 through to 31
May 2000
Admission free
The work will involve a reinterpretation of
ancient Mexican visual cosmogony as found in pre-Columbian codices. It will be displayed
alongside examples from the Library’s unique collection of facsimiles and Aztec
ritual books.
Gabriela Salgado, Curator of the
University’s Latin American Collection, explained: ‘Through this new work, the
artist will be expanding his contemporary vision of his ancestral culture, through the use
of ritual books that were originally used by Shamans in healing.’
The installation will constitute Piña’s
third individual exhibition in the UK since he settled here in 1997, and it was devised
jointly by University’s Latin American Art Collection (UECLAA) and the artist in
response to the success of his recent solo show ‘The Chocolate Way’ at the
Margaret Harvey Gallery in St Albans.
UECLAA is the largest collection of Latin
American art in Europe and includes an earlier example of Piña’s work, which is also
on display at the Albert Sloman Library.
Mexican students took the initiative to invite
the Presidents of Mexico’s major political parties to Essex when
they were in the UK at the end of February.
The Presidents of the Mexican ruling party
(Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) and the two leading opposition parties (Party of
the Democratic Revolution, PRD, and the National Action Party, PAN) attended a one-day
conference at the University.
Entitled ‘Three Parties, Three
Contenders,’ the conference discussions focused on the Mexican 2000 presidential
election.
A spokesperson for the Mexican Society,
explained: ‘This July, Mexico is going to have the first Federal Elections of the new
millennium. Among these, the presidential elections will undoubtedly be the most
significant owing to a real possibility that it may be won by the opposition. The
conference aimed to examine the impact and real extent of the Mexican political
transition.’
The event was co-hosted by the University, the
Mexican Society and the Mexican Centre.
Issues of common interest bring
together police and academics
The Department of Sociology hosted the first
University-Essex Police Forum on 8 March.
The Chief Constable of the Essex Police, David
Stevens, and some of his senior officers were there and engaged in a lively dialogue with
academics from the Departments of Sociology, Law, and Accounting Finance and Management.
(left to right)
Essex Police Chief Constable David Stevens with Professor Miriam Glucksmann, and Professor
Maurice Punch
The subject was corporate manslaughter, and the
two main themes explored were the difficulty that the police have in prosecuting companies
and secondly, their liability in cases of manslaughter.
Welcoming everyone to the forum, Professor Miriam
Glucksmann, Head of the Department of Sociology, said it was not the first time that the
University and the Police had been involved in such a collaborative initiative as links
between the Department and Essex Police go back for more than 30 years.
The forum heard how the Department organised a
10-day residential course for serving police officers in 1971. The initiative, which ran
for three years, came from the then Chief Constable who wanted a course which showed the
contribution of the social sciences to the work of police. Topics included class culture,
the influence of the mass media, and the impact of keeping personal data on computers
– issues that are still up-to-date today!
Professor Glucksmann said this two-way
relationship has been maintained over the years, with 1996 seeing the start of a part-time
five-year degree scheme in ‘Society, Law and Policing’ for police officers and
civilian staff. Currently 23 officers are enrolled on the course, with the first cohort
completing their degrees next year.
The forum discussions were chaired by Maurice
Punch, Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology. Professor Punch, who came to
Essex from the Netherlands, described the evening as ‘an unique arena for
practitioners and academics to discuss issues of common interest’ which he hoped
would be the beginning of new collaborative possibilities in institutional contact.
A second forum in already planned for June on the
subject of ‘Human Rights’ and several more during the next year, some of which
will be held at the headquarters of Essex Police in Chelmsford.
A truly international Graduate Conference
The international reputation of the
University’s Department of Philosophy for the study of Continental Philosophy was
confirmed by the Department’s International Philosophy Graduate Conference, on
Saturday 4 March. This was the sixth year of the conference and graduate students from as
far afield as New York and Tel Aviv presented papers on topics allied to this year’s
theme, ‘Aesthetics and the Continental Tradition’.
The papers all stressed the centrality of the
aesthetic (art, literature and music) to the Continental Tradition of philosophy, a
refreshing change from its marginalisation in most anglophone philosophy. Within this
broad consensus, however, there was a great variety: from an attempt to apply the German
philosopher Theodor Adorno’s aesthetics of music to ‘Japanese Noise’, to an
examination of the role of colour in memory focusing on the work of Søren Kierkegaard,
Marcel Proust and Samuel Beckett. The plenary paper was presented by Dr Christine
Battersby, of the Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick. Dr Battersby showed how
the concept of the sublime has traditionally had a male bias, and attempted to compensate
for this by positing a ‘female sublime’ that can be found in the works of the
artists Dorothea Tanning and Mona Hatoum.
All in all, the event was very successful, and
generated much lively debate and discussion.
Olympic hope for Sports Science Lecturer
Dr Jeremy Shearman, Lecturer in Sports Science
and Director of the Human Performance Unit, is hoping to travel to Sydney, Australia later
this year to attend the first Olympic Games of the 21st century. 
However this will not be to compete, instead Dr
Shearman (pictured right, photo courtesy of Essex County Newspapers) will be
accompanying the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) of Great Britain to conduct research
into the fitness levels of the British swimmers in the lead up to the games. As part of
his work with the ASA, Dr Shearman attended a World Grand Prix dive meeting in Sheffield
recently where he met with Steve Foley, the British team coach.
Dr Shearman is also the Consultant Physiologist
for the Southern British Diving Squad and has been working on a regular basis with a
member of the British Olympic team, Karen Smith, who trains in Southend.
Along with his involvement with the British
diving team, Dr Shearman is also working with the British junior swim team. Through a
course of weekend and week-long meetings and camps held around the country, Dr Shearman
has been advising the group of 30 elite athletes, all aged between 12 and 15, on their
fitness, in preparation for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
As part of his role with the team, Dr Shearman
will also be travelling to Canada at Easter where the team will be attending an
international swim meeting.
Ex-Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto visits the
University
The former Prime Minister of
Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was at the University on 22 February to deliver a lecture on the
subject of democracy and the growing role of women in modern society.
Ms Bhutto, who is currently in exile since her
last government was dismissed in 1996, was invited to the University by Mr Naweed-Yousaf
Khan, a second-year Economics and Politics student, of the APNA student society.
More than 360 students and staff attended the
lecture, with more than 200 listening to her in adjacent lecture theatres via audio-links.
Professor Ivor Crewe, the University’s
Vice-Chancellor, welcomed Ms Bhutto to the Univeristy, paying tribute to her distinguished
role as democratic campaigner, national leader and international stateswoman.’
He added: ‘The distinctive leadership that
women can and should make to their country and community, but the formidable obstacles
that prevent them from making it, are themes on which few can be better qualified to speak
than Mrs Bhutto.’
Oxford-educated Ms Bhutto described the joys of
studying at an English university, where ‘women were demanding to be treated as full
participants of society in every way.’ This experience, she said, ‘shaped her
political being and her faith in democracy.’
But she also revealed her sadness that Pakistan
‘has once again fallen under the long shadow of the Generals. With every passing day,
the drums of conflict grow louder.’
She also explained the sacrifices of being a
woman in politics and the challenges she faced ‘struggling for democracy.’
‘Leadership is never meant to be easy. It is
born of a passion, and it is a commitment. A commitment to an idea, to a people, to a
land. I travel, never knowing when I will be able to see my husband. I miss my children.
They are all under eleven. It is difficult explaining to little children why their mother
can’t be with them.’
The audience heard Ms Bhutto argue that her
battles were made harder by being a woman. ‘There are those who believe that South
Asian women leaders have inherited leadership through assassination of loved ones in the
family. They forget that each of us had to win our badges of honour by paying a political
price. The forces of patriarchy and tradition fought me at every step. They fight me even
today,’ she said.
During the question and answer session following
the lecture, Ms Bhutto faced some tough questions, including a comment from a Pakistani
student who said the people of Pakistan preferred military rule to government by the
Pakistani People’s Party (PPP).
